Baghdad bombings target Shia funeral

At least 65 people were killed and 120 others wounded Saturday in a triple bombing that targeted a tent filled with mourners in Baghdad's Shia neighborhood of Sadr City, police and medical sources said.

Police said a car bomb detonated near the tent where a funeral was being held. A suicide bomber driving a second car discharged another bomb shortly afterwards. A third explosion followed as police, paramedics and firefighters gathered at the scene.

A Reuters reporter said distraught survivors had attacked policemen and firefighters who tried to move them away from the scene. Puddles of blood surrounded the tent.

Meanwhile, an assault on a police building and other insurgent attacks in northern Iraq killed 11 members of the security forces on Saturday, police said.

Armed fighters frequently target security forces in an attempt to undermine public confidence in the Shia-led government in Baghdad.

The attacks are the latest in a months-long surge of violence that has gripped the nation and raised fears that it could slip back toward the widespread sectarian killings of 2004-2008 during the U.S. occupation of the country.

More than 4,000 people have been killed between April and August, U.N. figures show. Another 396 have been killed so far in September, according to an Associated Press tally. Among them, were 16 members of the same family.

Saturday's violence comes as voters in the northern Kurdish autonomous region cast ballots in local elections for the Kurdistan Regional Government's 111-seat legislature.

Iraqi Kurds are looking to bolster their autonomy while insulating their increasingly prosperous enclave from the growing violence roiling the rest of the country.

Al Jazeera and wire services